Palin hair big with partygoers, NY's Orthodox Jews

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's hair, with its straight bangs, beehive top and cascading locks, is proving popular among Halloween partygoers and some Orthodox Jewish women.

As Americans gear up for Halloween and Election Day soon after, New Yorkers are snapping up Palin-style wigs and glasses regardless of their political leanings, costume shop owners say.

And in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, the look has become popular among some Orthodox Jewish women, who buy wigs to cover their hair for religious reasons. Made of human hair, the Palin-style wigs cost $695 or more.

In Brooklyn's Borough Park, an area heavily populated by Hasidic men wearing black hats and long beards and women dressed in long skirts and long-sleeved shirts, stylist Gail Rosenzweig said half of her Orthodox Jewish clients want Palin's style.

"It's a fashion statement," said Rosenzweig as she worked on a Palin wig. Even though Palin is a Christian from Alaska, where Jews make up less than 1 percent of the state's 670,000 population, Rosenzweig said her clients "like her classic look. It can be worn up or down."

Shlomo Klein, an Orthodox Jew and vice president of wig maker Georgie Wigs, said he sold more than 50 of the "Sarah P" wigs across America in recent weeks to women wanting wigs either for medical or religious reasons.

Married Orthodox Jewish women do not show their real hair in public for modesty reasons and can spend between a few hundred to several thousand dollars on wigs, he said.